At the end of the 2025-2026 school year Director of Studies and Director of College Guidance Mal Goss will be concluding her time at AFS to start a position as Dean of Curriculum and Instruction at Kent Denver School. Goss has been part of the AFS community for five years and during her time at AFS has selflessly supported faculty, students, and families navigate academic programs, curriculum, and college admissions.
What has been a highlight of your time at AFS?
I think probably two things. One is about what I was hired to do when I came in, which was to build systems both for the college office and also for course selection. I think I’m proudest that there are systems in place, and that it has made people’s lives, hopefully, easier. And then the other thing is the students; I really enjoy them and that they feel free to come in the office.
What has been your biggest challenge in your role at AFS?
I think putting in systems. When you come into a new place and something else has existed for a long time, changes [are] hard, no matter who you are. Actually getting systems in place that people were following was challenging.
What have you learned in your role at AFS?
I think my biggest lesson was about how to collaborate. This role requires working with a lot of different people: students, parents, faculty. Everybody needs something different, so learning how to actually meet people where they are and trying to be flexible in ways that both hold a policy that we’ve created, but to still be equitable.
What will you miss most about AFS?
Definitely the people. I love this college office. It has been such a joy to work with [Associate Director of College Guidance and soon to be Director of College Guidance] Joanna [Upmeyer], [Registrar and College Guidance Administrative Assistant] Maryann [Cummiskey], and [College Guidance Fellow and soon to be Associate Director of College Guidance] Michelle [Shipe]. We have a really good time together. We get along really well. We do good work together. I enjoy most of my colleagues. I enjoy the students, so I think the people will be hard to leave.
What are your primary responsibilities at AFS as the director of college guidance and director of studies?
In the role of Director of College Guidance, it’s to set the programming, like, what are the things that we do throughout the year, how do we work with students, how do we try to provide as much as possible for families while being a very small office, interacting with colleges, talking to directors of admissions to stay up on what’s happening. Director of studies is kind of everything academic at the upper school, so I’ve been involved in conversations about course selection, about studying away, about independent study. It’s been a bit of a hodgepodge, but I kind of like that.
As you begin a new role that’s not directly in college guidance, how do you feel about no longer working in the world of college guidance?
I’m not that sad to go away from college guidance. I’ll miss building relationships with students. My new role is going to be much less student facing. There’s a point at which college guidance has the same cycle and it’s different each time because students are different, but the actual job is kind of the same. I’ve gotten a little bit bored of that part of it.
How did you first become involved with college guidance in your career?
I sort of walked backwards into it. My first job that I had was at a school in Washington, DC, the Field School, and I was an English teacher, and I happened to teach a lot of 11th graders, and when they were going through their college process, I was sort of, like, tell me more about what colleges you’re learning about. When the associate director was leaving that school, multiple people were like, you should just go and take the job, because you really like talking about college. That was the start of it.
What are you looking forward to in your new position as Dean of Curriculum and Instruction at Kent Denver School?
I’m really excited to spend all of my day thinking about curriculum, alignment, and how to help faculty be the best they can be in their classrooms. At schools most of what is difficult is time. You need time to do things and don’t have a ton of it, but someone in my role can work on a lot of the things that [teachers] need time for, and then help them implement it without them overtaxing themselves.
What initially drew you to AFS and what’s drawing you to Kent Denver School right now?
What I liked about AFS was the job itself. It was a place for me to grow; I knew how to do college counseling, but the director of studies part was something that I hadn’t really done before. I liked that it was a Friends’ school and that people seemed really kind.
In terms of why I’m going to Kent Denver, I have always known that my path really is about curriculum, even in the college guidance role. I felt like after five years, I was ready to sort of move fully into the director of studies kind of role.
How has the college process and college admissions landscape changed since you have arrived at AFS in general and specifically at AFS.
COVID changed a lot of things. It changed how many colleges students apply to. It increased the number, because a lot of students were very anxious about the fact that they couldn’t visit places, so they added more schools, just in case. I think there’s also a greater trend toward early decision because strategically it is a good thing to do and colleges are just getting more difficult to get into, especially on the very selective end of things. At AFS, one of the things that has changed is getting kids to look at a wider range of schools and really focusing on the financial piece.
What other schools have you worked in and how have they been different from AFS?
I worked at the Field School in D.C. I would say that was probably closest to AFS; it’s a quirky school that’s set up in an old house. The kids there were artsy and quirky. They didn’t have APs or anything like that. It was a fairly small school, it’s probably the closest to what AFS is. After that, I went to Noble and Greenough, which is just outside of Boston for a year, and that was super traditional. Lakeside was an interesting mix; it’s the Pacific Northwest, so people are very polite and a little laid back and at the same time it’s definitely the kind of school that’s like a bullet train to Stanford, Ivies, MIT. Kids were going to Lakeside because that was their goal. And then AFS was sort of like a nice breath of fresh air after having to work with students in that way. I really like the authenticity of the kids here.
Is Kent Denver something that you see as a school that’s similar to AFS or are there key differences that you’re anticipating?
I think it’s similar in the ways that they are trying to think about innovation in education, so they’re trying to expand their experiential learning opportunities. They’re really interested and always kind of looking at what could we do better. They’re in a different market, which I think makes them a different school. The Philly market is saturated. There are tons of schools: charter schools, public schools, independent schools. In Denver, there really aren’t very many independent schools. So they also kind of get to do a lot of that experimentation, because they’re not worried about the enrollment cliff or losing students and families, because there aren’t as many options.
Is there anything else that we didn’t cover that you want to add?
I guess I would just say that I am very much going to miss being at AFS and I feel like I would never have been able to take this new role if I hadn’t been here for these five years.